


Last time

by yuukibozu



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: M/M, Pre-Kerberos Mission
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-11
Updated: 2016-10-11
Packaged: 2018-08-21 20:17:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 997
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8259302
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yuukibozu/pseuds/yuukibozu
Summary: Last time, it brought a smile to your face so contagious it held onto me for months.This time, you're wondering how to leave it behind.
Don't forget what I've told you.





	

He hears it first during a sparring session, and Keith's mind is elsewhere. 

“Keith.”

“Keith?”

A light knock to his forearm brings him out of his head space, delicately mumbling as he comes back to reality.   
Ever since the school year had started, some competitive punk had been actively disrupting Keith’s focus. He was not one to lose concentration easily, and even less of one was he to allow someone else’s influence to interrupt or guide his actions. But after a few weeks of his first year at the Garrison, the stranger’s constant interruptions were gritting down on his nerves. Today especially, Keith couldn’t seem to shake the provocative comments out from his head. 

“What’s gotten into you?” The question was serious, though it was delivered with a playful air and a smile.   
Keith let out an exhausted breath he hadn’t known he’d been holding. “Nothing, sorry. Hit me again.”   
Shiro let out an amused breath as the two of them repositioned themselves on the training mats. It had only been two weeks since they’d started sparring together -- having bumped into each other a few too many times on the Garrision’s private training grounds to keep training alone-- but it hadn’t taken long for Shiro to learn that Keith was a straight-forward guy. At least, when he was looking in front of him, and not rummaging around his head, he was. 

Keith lunged first, not allowing another moment’s pause to keep him. He’d already wasted enough time running around aimlessly in his own head. He leapt straight for Shiro’s middle, but rushing in and ignoring the preciseness of the moves he was practicing; it wasn’t long before he was thrown flat onto his back. He let out a long groan as Shiro stood above him, concerned. “Don’t make me ask again, Keith. What’s the matter?” There was a short silence, and facing away from Shiro, Keith rolled back up to his feet, not willing to share whatever was on his mind. It was stupid, anyways. Just some asshole annoying the ever-loving shit out of Keith during class. It shouldn’t be a problem. Keith would not allow it to appear as a problem. 

Again, Keith was brought back out from his headspace with a physical nudge; this one less of a knock, and more of a comforting squeeze on his shoulder.   
“Keith, breathe. You’re not going to get anywhere if you rush around like this. You’ve got to focus.” Keith flashed a glance at his shoulder, hesitating to brush the touch away. “Remember, patience yields focus.”   
The younger forced his shoulders to relax, doing his best against his usual judgment to actually listen to a mentor figure for once. 

The rest of the evening went smoothly enough, and afterwards Keith returned to his dorm sweaty and sleepy; Shiro’s contagious smile still tugging at his lips.

The second time he hears the cheesy, though admittedly comforting line is, again, when they’re sparring. As is the third. Weeks turn into months and it becomes something like an inside joke when Shiro says it. Keith has an easier time focusing during their training sessions -- their time together turning into a small bubble of their own universe -- and the need for the mantra to be said becomes less a necessity and more a playful reminder of the beginning of their friendship. Soon enough Keith loses track of the times he hears it, though that does nothing to dissuade the meaning it’s beginning to hold for him.

He finally hears it from his own mouth when he's struggling to keep from pounding some asshole's face in. Someone jealous, as a guidance counselor later puts it, of Keith’s friendship with Shiro.   
The other student is shoved up against the dormitory hallway’s walls, Keith’s fists wringing his uniform’s collar. Keith wants to throw the boy down on the ground. He wants to climb on top of him and demonstrate some of the moves he’d been learning over the past couple of weeks. He realizes that would be the exact opposite of what Shiro had intended for his lessons to turn into.  
Keith hesitates. He can hear the heavy breathing from both him and his classmate. Their eyes are locked, and for a few beats, all they do is stare each other off. The boy’s focus darts between Keith’s eyes. He keeps up an appearance, but it’s obvious to Keith that he’d scared. He can’t tell, but Keith’s mouth is moving, and words fall from his lips.   
The other student shoves Keith off of him, brushing himself off before shouting some profanity at Keith’s advice, calling him pompous and arrogant, and strutting away down the hall.  
Keith’s eyes follow him. He’d been unaware that he’d been speaking aloud.   
He looks down at his fists, clenching them now that they’re no longer filled with orange-dyed cotton, and he breathes.  
It’s the first time he willingly had allowed someone else to influence his actions.

The phrase sticks with him and his new-found best friend for the next year. His light laughter is melancholy as he watches a spacecraft take off and soar out of the Earth’s atmosphere. He reminds himself to be patient for a few months. 

The fourteen months that follow that, Keith cringes every time he hears Shiro’s voice in his head. His shoulders tense and his focus blurs;   
He doesn’t have a moment’s patience from the day he finds the cave full of lion carvings until he’s standing in a purple-illuminated hallway, watching as Pidge and his best friend turn away to leave Keith on his own. He calls out to Shiro, and Keith again hesitates when he feels the familiar pressure of the taller man’s hand on his shoulder. This time, he maintains full eye-contact as Shiro repeats the mantra. 

He keeps the smile down for a few minutes until he mumbles it to himself, finally allowing the words to comfort him as they once had, as he locates his own lion. 

“Found you.”

**Author's Note:**

> This was just me talking about nothing with a buddy on Twitter and then I wanted to write a lil ficklet. I might add to it one day but knowing me I won't lmao


End file.
